"Someone" sent me the following rep yesterday: "lol. looks great on paper, eh?" I laughed. Then I laughed at the stereotypical "eh" at the end. Looking at it now, yeah, while I wouldn't say I bit off more than I can chew, I definitely got a mouthful. Part of the issue is that I thought to have something with more "oomph" for preparing the land. But the rates at the local rental show ( owned by a guy I've known over 40 years ) were ridiculous and asking for someone with a larger tractor to come help means you're on their timeline, which, when you're trying to work with the weather, doesn't work. But it's getting there, and what keeps me going is the knowledge that when it's full of native wildflowers, it's going to make for a spectacular view from the front porch. Here's where I'm at so far: I'll likely plow up a little more in that upper right corner to give it a more natural, less "garden" look. I think I need to order more seed too.
I was checking my peach trees for leaf curl/aphid infestations. One of my trees is affected, but there's also a ladybug orgy going on, so I am going to let it ride and see what happens.
We're getting the cicada invasion right now. There are multiple overlapping emerging breeds. They're not supposed to do too much damage, but it's right when I need to prune my azaleas. I'm hoping their egg laying doesn't F up things.
I have a very early memory of being on a camping trip with my family during another overlapping year of cicadas. I think it was 3 or 4 species emerging that year. It was fucking biblical. An absolute plague. We stayed in the tent and had to carefully zip up because they were crawling and flying everywhere. I hope you don't get to experience that. I also saw an article about some sort of fungal STD that made them infertile this year. I have no idea how widespread that is.
I don't know how widespread it is, either, but if I ever had to admit I got a fungal STD from a cicada . . . well, just shoot me.
Marigolds. I plant many of these around the garden, many good benefits. However, I historically SUCK at starting them from seed. Turns out it was my methodology. I got 100% pop rate on my seeds this year, following the sifter advice in the video linked below. Quality advice for sure. I hope it benefits someone as it has me. https://youtu.be/ryNnepdaTDI?si=j3MHrFSqqHr5SwT2
I'm making progress on my pollinator garden: My peach trees are in bloom over there on the right. Please join me in prayer we don't get a killing frost like usual. For tilling I was using an 40+ year old 6 horse Sears lawn tractor and this drag/ tine set up my Dad had. That completely wrecked my arm ( lifting and lowering ) but in the meantime, Dad bought a new set of drags, the "spring kind", I'm not sure what they're called. But those are busting the ground and sod up WAY better. So at this point I'm just working at loosening up the soil and making sure the grass doesn't get a chance to grow and crowd out the wildflowers when they're planted. I'm already thinking of way to spruce of this "garden" including planting perennials on the perimeter, rock walls, etc. I think it's going to be a project that I add to a little bit at a time over the coming years.
Remember the discussion about there being determinate and indeterminate potato varieties and the whole potato tower stuff. Well, it turns out it's nonsense. Here's a really good article by a guy who knows what he's talking about. And it makes total sense why potato towers don't work when you think about it. https://www.cultivariable.com/potato-towers/
Heres how my pollinator plot is coming along: A few shots from the pollinator project: The Monarch butterfly plot: Closeup of some of the plant varieties: I'm pretty happy with how it's coming overall. Could use a good rain right about now: I've been finding patches of common milkweed around the property and clearing the other weeds from around them to give them a chance to flourish. The milkweed that I transplanted is doing well. Quote Edit Options
Here's an update: View from the road: And a couple other angles. There's a lot of flower buds still waiting to make an appearance:
I pulled the potatoes yesetrday, and was underwhelmed with the yield. A lot of them were smaller and misshapen. I think I may start with new seed stock next year and see if that makes a difference. However this morning it occurred to me I planed these in mid-May, so I could concevably re-plant the smaller ones and have another crop before first frost. Keeping the soil moist is the issue, it's been hot as balls here and no steady rains.
My first okra are coming in. Edit: I’m too old and posting a photo from my phone isn’t working. You’ll have to imagine my okra.